Soulslike games have exploded in popularity in recent years, becoming the preeminent genre for players that want to exploredark, twisted loreor challenge themselves with immense difficulty over the course of the game. These games wear their inspiration on their sleeves, or else come from the masters who pioneered the genre to begin with, and all good soulslikes have found some new way to innovate on the genre.
While some games will change some soulslike elements, perhaps not sticking to thegenre’s typical difficultyor tone, many soulslike games have followed their inspiration’s path and created fluid, dynamic ways to experience multiplayer. These games in particular epitomize soulslikes through their use of multiplayer as a vehicle for both PvP and co-op instances.
Wo Long: Fallen Dynastyis aslick, dynamic takeon the soulslike formula, putting a far greater emphasis on combos and strategic swordplay than necessarily accumulating the highest possible stats. Players will experience a twisted dark fantasy imagining of Han dynasty China filled with many perils.
Cooperation can be used to assist with these perils, with friends helping to take down the many huge, terrifying bosses that can be challenged in game. For those looking for a more competitive experience, PvP duels can test the swordsmanship of both players.
The intricate connection between hosts, invaders and cooperators returns inDark Souls: Remastered, reminding both new and veteran players why this game was so iconic to begin with. Players can expect ahost of detailed buildsthey can put to the test as protectors or invaders.
There was a great deal of nuance to the covenants and the unique roles they all played in the game’s multiplayer eco-system, and aligning with invaders, protectors, or duelists in their various covenants was an integral part of this game’s online component.
A stunning turnaround from the original title of the same name,Lords of the Fallenin its 2023 installation is a fantastic title that keeps the focus and tactical depth of early souls titles while including a new mix of horror and eldritch themes.
Cooperation can be vital for some of the tougher areas in this game, and the invasion scene is still quite active, making multiplayer based around that classicSoulsdynamic just another element that makes this game great.
Dark Souls 3brings a lot ofinteresting new layersto the PvP and cooperation scene from previous titles, celebrating the series' past glories (which it does in quite a few areas, candidly) while also innovating in its own ways.
Aldritch Faithful and Farron Watchdogs invade to guard certain areas, while mad phantoms are a great ‘wild card’ phantom that can attack hosts, protector phantoms, or other invaders. Warriors of Sunlight, are as ever, faithful and jolly cooperators.
Bloodbornehas a multiplayer system that is distinct but closely aligned to that of the broaderSoulsseries, tying the summoning of multiplayer cooperators to a resource, Insight, which can be earned through many means during normal gameplay.
Sinister bells, to invade players, are synced up with a unique sinister bell ringing woman in the hosts world, adding a new level of worldbuilding to the overall multiplayer dynamic of cooperation and PvP in this game.
Dark Souls 2is considered by many to be the pinnacle of PvP in the series as a whole, with a much more strategic focus put on combat so that features like stamina management and poise are more important than just rolling around and blitzing the enemy.
Cooperation and PvP both saw expansions in the form of new covenants, new hotspots to engage with, and anincredibly unique PvP bossthat hasn’t been topped by Fromsoft since.
Salt and Sanctuarywas one of the first games to really begin defining soulslike as a genre, taking that grim atmosphere and obscure lore that many people loved about theSoulsgames and transferring it into a difficult metroidvania style platformer.
Sellswords are a feature players can bring into any of their shrines, and can then ‘hire’ sellswords as a flavorful mechanic to bring in cooperators. A special item can turn the cooperator into a duelist for some friendly competition.
The sheer volume of weapons, armor, spells, and supplementary equipment available inElden Ringnot only gives multiplayer-focused players a wealth of builds to try out, but many builds can besynergized with one anotheras a great form of cooperationwithina PvP context.
Like a lot of things regardingElden Ring, the multiplayer aspect where cooperation and PvP are concerned is the culmination of all the lessons Fromsoft has learned from previous games, creating a streamlined but deep ecosystem of cooperators and invaders.
